You Have Been Weighed, Measured, And Are Wanting
by Christine Writer
Summary: William's thoughts and feelings from his imprisonment until his release. Please be nice, it's my first Knight's Tale story, R&R. ONESHOT.


Disclaimer: I own nothing.

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William Thatcher sighed as he paced the floor of his small cell, his shoulders aching from the weight of the log his hands were bound to. For a moment, he entertained the thought of where he would be now if he'd run, like Joscelyn had asked him to. He shook his head. He would probably be right here, anyway. He turned his back to the door. He didn't need to see beyond the iron-latticed door—he knew that freedom, and thus, Joscelyn, was unattainable.

The door scraped open quietly, and William turned as quickly as the log would allow. His hopes rose—maybe it was Joscelyn! But his hopes plummeted, as did his stomach, when he came face to face with Sir Adhemar. Adhemar closed the door behind him, and turned to face William.

"You truly thought you could pretend you were worth more than dirt, peasant? As I heard whispered through the stands, you thought you could "change your stars?" Really, William—you actually thought you could have Joscelyn?" Adhemar taunted William.

William stood in stony silence, refusing to satisfy Aldhemar by giving an answer. Fire was in his eyes, and Aldhemar saw it.

"Well, peasant—" Aldhemar circled around William, so they were face to face again. "Once again, you have been weighed—" he slammed his fist into William's gut and William reeled backwards, wincing as his already achingly sore body resisted the urge to collapse to the floor. The defiance in his eyes spoke volumes to Aldhemar, though his voice remained silent. He fought against his bonds, but to no avail. He tried to think of a way to lift the log over his head and to strike Aldhemar with it, but his body did not respond to the command.

"You have been measured—" Aldhemar struck again, harder, and William gasped in pain. "And you have been found wanting." Aldhemar punctuated his sentence with the hardest strike of all. William collapsed onto the floor, and Aldhemar stepped around him to the door. "Pity—" he said as William tried to rise from the floor. "You almost passed as a knight!"

The next day, as William was placed in the stocks, he gasped when fiery pain from Aldhemar's attack shot through every inch of his body. His shoulders ached from being relieved of the log, and thin cuts he had received when his bonds were removed burned as they were placed in the tight wristholes of the stocks.

He struggled to keep his head up, for if he rested his neck in the stocks it constricted his breathing. He saw the small boy whom he'd seen upon entering the town approach the stocks, and was not surprised when the child smacked him across the head.

William thanked God in Heaven when he saw Roland stand in front of the stocks, blocking the spoiled vegetation being hurled at William's head. He smiled thinly when Kate, Wat, and finally Geoff joined Roland in protecting him.

Suddenly, they were all aware of three black-hooded figures nearing the front of the crowd. William lifted his chin to see the figures better, and his heart skipped a beat when he saw that it was Prince Edward. Could this bode well?

Prince Edward faced the crowd, and as he spoke, William could not believe his ears! He was descended from an ancient family of nobility? The top half of the stocks lifted, and Kate and Roland gently extracted him from them and helped him stand in front of Prince Edward.

Prince Edward asked him to kneel, and William's head spun as Kate and Roland helped him do so. The next words out of Prince Edward's mouth would change his life forever. "I knight thee, Sir William!"

William stood with Roland's help, and thanked Prince Edward quietly, wondering to himself if it were true or not. It did not truly matter, but it would put an interesting spin on things if it was true.

"Now that you have been truly knighted, I believe there is a match waiting for you—and his name is Adhemar." Prince Edward grinned, helping William to his horse.


End file.
